Fertilizer-distributer.



A R. wrcKLsFFE. FERTILIZEH DISTRIBUTEB.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 9.1916.

. Patented Feb. 19, 1918.

Haig #diffe www RAY WICKLIFFE, 0F MILLERSPORT, OHIO.

FERTILIZER-DISTRIBUTER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented' Feb. i9, 1918.

Application filed J' une 9, 1916. Serial No. 102,803.

To aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, RAY WICKLIFFE, citizen of the United States, residing at Millersport, in the county of F airfield and State of Ohio, have invented a certain new and useful `Improvement in Fertilizer-Distributers, of which the following is a specification.

The present invention relates to lime and fertilizer distributors, and is designed especially to overcome certain diiculties encountered in the construction and operation of the revolving agitator which forms a component part of the particular class of devices to which the improvementsV are directed.

'In the distributers for fertilizers which comprise a revolving agitator in a hopper, from which the agitator stirs and rotates the fertilizer which falls through openings in the bottom of the hopper when 'the fertilizer, which may be ground limestone for instance, becomes moist or wet, the lime sticks or adheres to the bars of the agitator with the result that the lime is packed in and around the agitator, instead of stirred by the agitator bars, and the openings in the bottom of the hopper are clogged. When this condition is encountered, the machine runs harder, danger arises of breakage of the device, and the necessity 'also arises of stopping the machine and clearing the moist lime that has clogged the agitator, so that the lime may pass through the agitator and the hopper bottom to be distributed. To overcome these ditliculties and objectionable features I have provided the agitator bars with certain defined and predetermined shapes and angles to the radius of the agita` tor, in order that the moist lime will not be permitted to adhererto the bars, nor to be much compressed beneath them, and thus eliminate the possibility of packing the lime in the agitator or on the lower portion of the hopper.

In the accompanying drawings I have illustrated one complete example of the physical embodiment of my invention, and a slight modification thereof, constructed according to the best modes I have so far devised the practical application of the principles of the invention.

Figure l is a vertical transverse sectional view of a hopper showing the agitator of the present invention adapted thereto.

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the agitator detached.

ysectional view of one end of the hopper showing the device for adjusting the height of the agitator relative to the bottom of the hopper.

Figs. 6 and 7 are diagrammatic views showing the relation of the agitator bars to the lime as the agitator is revolved in the hopper.

It will be understood that the hopper l is mounted upon a suitable vehicle and is drawn over the ground to distribute the lime or fertilizer, but inasmuch as these devices are well known in the art, it has not been thought necessary to illustrate a vehicle herein. rI`he hopper may be provided with a top or screen cover 2, and its perforated bottom 3 is equipped with an upper slide 4 to regulate the size of the opening or orifice for the passage of the lime or other powdered fertilizer through the slide 4 and perforated bottom 3. An additional perforated slide 5 is located under the bottom, and by mea-ns of this slide the entire perforated bottom may be covered, as shown in the drawings, in order to shut off the passage of the lime when it is desired to do so.

The agitator 6 is suspended by its shaft Z in the ends of the hopper, and to adjust it relatively to the hopper bottom for materials of different degrees of fineness I employ a plate 8, at each end of the hopper, in which the shaft is suspended and has a bearing. The shaft is passed through a vertical slot of sufficient dimension in each endof the hopper, and the plate 8 which is adapted to slide between plates as 9, is formed with an integral ring l0 in which the end of a bolt 1l is loosely fitted so that the bolt may turn freely. The boit is threaded into a bracket 12, and it will be seen that the bolt may be turned to lift the agitator, or reversely turned to force the agitator downward, through the suspension plates 8.

There are four bars or blades 13 illustrated as part of the agitator 6, and these blades are supported in the two heads 14 and the intermediate disks l5 all of which the plane of the face 17 forms-an acute` angle with radial dotted line 20, andlooking from the perimeter, the line 21 Vis at the Vrear .of the .radial line as the agitator revolves in the direction of the arrow 22. This arrangement of .the plane of the face of the V.blade which comes in direct `contact with the lime prevents adherence of the lime to the blade, the proposition being illustrated diagrammatically in'Figs. y6 and V7, where theibackward inclination of the face V17 in Fig. 6 is not great enough to prevent the blade carrying a quantity Vof the ground limestone Vto the upper part of the hopper to stir it up, but the inclination to the radius is best in the lneighborhood of fifteen or twenty degrees or as shown in Figs. 7 and 3 to insure that the powdered material shall disengage itself fromY the blade and fall by gravity through the agitator toward the bottom of the hopper.l The described arrangement of the planesof the faces 18 and 19 of the bladesalso tends to prevent adherence ofthe powdered fertilizer to the blades as will be `clearly .evident from .the drawings. The continuous rotary fmov-ement vof the agitator stirs up the powdered fertilizer keeping the material ina loose and iaky condition and preventing clogging of the exits in the hopper bottom, and at the same time sows .the fertilizer as' Vthe machine passes over theground.

Y In Fig. 4 the agitator is provided atV each end with a stub shaft 7', and this form of agitator and shaft are employed when the shortv length of the agitator does not require a single shaft like Vthat indicated by the numeral 7. The elimination of this single shaft leaves the interior of the agitator open ,for greater movement of the fertilizing material' as it is stirred up by the'agitator blades, which I prefer tobe made of nonrusting material. Y

Thereare -numerous other 'advantage-ous features accruing from the utilization of Athis peculiar' form and position of'blade,

but as'these will be well understood in the art byk those familiar with it their emuneration is' deemed unnecessary. Y

Nhat claim is: Y In a fertilizer distri-buter, thecombination Vwith a ho er havin Ydischar e o eninOs of from the rim of the agitator and rearward-ly with respect to the directionof motion 'of the blade fromfthe radius of the agitator which touches the outer edge of the blade,

said bar alsohaving its outer face lying at .an acuteV angle to and meeting the said work-v ing face and being inclined inwardly from the path of motion of the line of junction of said faces, substantially. as described.

RAY WICKLIFFE. Y

Uopies of this patent may be obtained for five, cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of latents,

Washington, D. C. 

